Dems push Keystone amendments in Senate test

Senate Democrats are floating a handful of amendments to a Republican Keystone XL pipeline bill to prohibit exports of the Canadian oil and to push green energy as they prepare to take on the role of the minority party of the upper chamber.

“Consideration of this bill will provide us with the first opportunity to demonstrate that we will be united, energetic and effective in offering amendments that create a clear contrast with the Republican majority,” Senate Democratic Policy and Communications Center Chairman Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Vice Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) wrote Democratic colleagues Sunday in a letter obtained by POLITICO.

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The coming days will be an important initial test for incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has pledged to have an open amendment process after he and Republicans frequently criticized how former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) ran things.

McConnell’s deputy chief of staff, Don Stewart, said the majority leader welcomed the Democrats’ participation and hoped they would pass the bill.

“We’re starting with a bipartisan infrastructure bill for a reason, and we’ll have a chance to see if Sen. Schumer and the Democrat[ic] leadership allows their members to actually participate, or if they continue to fight against their own members who want to help create good jobs here at home,” Stewart said in an email.

In their letter, Schumer and Stabenow summarized five “relevant amendments that the DPCC believes can be tied together by a common theme — that we are working hard to make the average American family better off while Republicans are helping narrow special interests.”

The amendments would:

— Ban the export of oil transported through the pipeline, language that Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) has frequently floated in both chambers of Congress;

— Require U.S.-produced iron, steel and manufactured goods “to be used for the pipeline construction, connection, operation, and maintenance.” It’s another familiar measure that senators like Markey and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) have offered.

— Require “that for every job created by the pipeline, an equal or greater amount of jobs is created through clean energy investments.” Schumer and Stabenow highlight legislation from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would cut the price of home solar units through rebates.

— Restore funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program to levels authorized in the 2009 economic stimulus bill under the condition that seniors and veterans get first priority.

— Prohibit a state from permitting a foreign corporation to invoke eminent domain. This addresses a key part of a case that will soon be decided by the Nebraska Supreme Court on the legality of the state’s approval of a route for the pipeline there. “Many Republicans have raised serious objections to the use of eminent domain by local American governments, and unless they believe the authority is less troubling when exercised by a foreign company they should vote for this amendment,” Schumer and Stabenow wrote.

They also include a proposal to “modestly raise royalty rates for Big Oil companies for offshore and onshore drilling and mining (for both coal and other minerals) on federal lands” in order to pay for the home solar rebates and increased LIHEAP funding. The Obama administration’s FY14 budget proposal said raising these rates would yield $2.5 billion over the next decade.

Schumer, on CBS’ “Face the Nation” earlier Sunday, also predicted that there would still be enough opposition to authorizing the pipeline for the Senate to sustain a presidential veto. The bill is the same as one approved in the Senate energy panel in June and which failed in the full Senate under Democratic control in November.

There are enough votes in a GOP-controlled Senate to overcome a filibuster, but the White House has not said whether President Barack Obama will veto the bill once it comes to his desk. Obama has been critical of the project in recent public comments.

Still, the upcoming debate on the bill may be the biggest on energy policy in the Senate since at least 2007 and could include scores of amendments touching on EPA regulations, liquefied natural gas exports, energy efficiency and climate change.

For Democrats, it may be an early example of how a tighter left-of-center caucus will prioritize a greener and more liberal overall agenda heading into a far more favorable electoral road map in 2016.

Amendments are expected when the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee takes up the bill Thursday ahead of expected debate in the full Senate next week, said Robert Dillon, a spokesman for incoming Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska.). Wyden, Sanders and Stabenow are among those on the energy panel who may offer up amendments that are highlighted in the DPCC letter.

The ascension of incoming Senate ENR ranking member Maria Cantwell of Washington as the panel’s new top Democrat, replacing ousted pipeline supporter Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, will also signal a shift to a more progressive Senate Democratic caucus.